Fun without passports

Ok so for the two or three of you that are following us and our misadventures across the U.K, you will be aware that we still have no passports. (Yay for the Home Office).
Anyway in such a large country much fun can be had without travelling across borders. So last month we went to Winchester for a farmers market and while we were there we visited the cathedral. A farmers market overhere is amazing. The first stall we stopped at sold Mulled Wine and as it was wet and freezing we decided that drinking warm tasty wine at 10am was perfectly acceptable. Other new experiences that day included the yummiest red meat we have eaten since we came to this country. Water Buffalo. mmmmmm. My mouth starts watering just thinking about it. Also Shelley had to buy so much bread that she could have started up her own shop. there was also fresh vege and cheese and you name it.
So in the courtyard to the cathedral was this thing. (refer photo) We believe it had something to do with the aliens trying to contact the mother ship. Seriously though guys, this church is like 600 years old. It is a perfect example of gothic architecture and it is now sharing space with a 'sculpture' that looks like a giant finger. (E.T phone home)
The cathedral was very pretty. If you have read previous entries then you would have heard us mention bendy buildings. This cathedral was so bendy I don't know how it managed to stay up.
There is a momument to a man who gave his life to prevent the church from collapse. One corner was built under water and he dived down to re-enforce the structure to stop if from collapsing further and he ran out of air but remained down there to finish the job. It is still very bendy however.
Anyway now I will (hopefully) locate the photos from said church.

Sorry the last two are a little fuzzy but I guess my photography skills were off that day. The last one is me trying to show you the bendyness of this place. It might help if you look at the ceiling.
Winchester is also the final resting place of Jane Austen. This is the outside of the house she dided in. It is now a private residence so we couldn't go inside.

We went for a walk along the canal. The houses that are on the waterfront had their own entrances to the water from their gardens. 100's of years ago they would have used boats as a means of transport. (think Shakespeare in Love) Some of the houses still have the gates in place though they are now obviously not used. They still make for a pretty photo.


The last photo is of the canal looking to the mainstreet of the town.
Anyway that is about it from Winchester. Looking forward to going back there for more tasty food. mmmmmm food. Okay now I am going to eat. Talking about all the tasty food has made me hungry.
Loves

GRRRRRRRRR

Ok, so this is going to be a big bitch session. . .
First of all I'm going to explain our living situation and how it's been since we moved in. . .first of all after we had seen the place and told the landlord we wanted to move in he said he wanted to clear it with the people who lived here first as he wanted everyone to be happy - which we were cool with and completely understood, until they came back saying they were uncomfortable with it, why you may ask??? Because they've never lived with a same-sex couple before and "didn't know what to expect". . .I say diddims and if you knew any homosexual couples at all you'd know we're just like any other couple and there wouldn't be an issue, but anyway our landlord turned around and said "I'm black and I don't do discrimination in anyway at all so if that's all the 'issues' they have then you're free to move in". But we knew that it would be a bit uncomfortable. . .Little did we know how.
We move in, and pretty much from the MOMENT we move in, if we're here they hide in their room, we don't socialise at all. (not by our choice though, we'd be happy to socialise with them if they ever wanted to) So anyway, if we're ever in the lounge they're not here, not because we don't want them to be but because THEY don't want to be.
You may all be wondering where this is going. . .So, about two weeks ago they come to us and say "we're not comfortable about the way this room [the living room] is being shared, you always seem to be in here" (we were thinking, well duh, this is a living room, we LIVE in it) and so we asked what we could do and came to the "compromise" that, except for Tuesdays and Thursdays when we have TV shows we watch, we will leave the lounge to them after 9pm. We were under the impression that this meant from when I came home from work till 9 the living room was "ours", we weren't happy, cause we feel that if you want privacy, go to your own room, but we were willing to give it a try! Only, they kept being in this area and weren't giving us the same consideration as we were giving them, so we were about to talk to them about how it wasn't working for us. (And for those of you who understand what this means - they were playing chess and talking during "Once More, With Feeling"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Well, tonight they come to us again and say that the whole thing isn't working for them and they want us to spend the majority of time in our room and only be in the living room when we are watching tv and they will do the same!!! Have these people NEVER lived with anybody before?!?!?!?!?!? You SHARE the living room in the sense that you all occupy the room at the same time, you want privacy - go to your freaking room!!!!! (I'm a little peeved at the moment, hence the excessive use of the exclamation marks, I apologise for that fact) You don't have "seperate, private" time in the living room!!!
Anyway, we made suggestions as to how things could be fixed, they made suggestions, basically neither of the couples is going to back down and it comes down to one of us moving out, and we like this place WAY too much and we're not going anywhere baby! If anyone has any ideas/suggestions as to how to deal with this issue, please help!
Not too mention the fact that I'm the ONLY one who puts out the rubbish and their freaking CHRISTMAS tree is STILL UP!! It's FEBRUARY for BEEPS sake!!!

Anyway; in an attempt to lighten the mood, I'm going to put some photos up of the SNOW (little excited squeal) we've had! (the snow which has meant a day and a half of work for me!!)

So first up, this was the view out of our kitchen window on Monday morning. . .
and this:
was the view out our lounge window and across the road.
This is my school from the car as we were coming up the driveway:
Isn't it pretty? and such an old building too!!And last but not least we have the school grounds as they looked from the carpark (or at least, some of the school grounds, it's a BIG school!!)
When we went into school we discovered that we only had the 21 termly boarders (kids who don't go home for the weekend) and that none of the day kids or the weekly boarders (kids who do go home for the weekend) could make it in. Nor could half the staff. . .Our school is kinda in the middle of nowhere with loads of windy, dangerous, country roads and a very steep, long driveway. So, we figured out how to get the 21 kids home and the senior management said, come back Wednesday, enjoy the snow!!! So we did!!! And it was proper powdery, soft snow too!!! I had a mini snowfight with one of my boys and made a snow angel too!!! It was so awesome!!!!
Anyway, thank you for listening to my rant and staying all the way through till the happy stuff at the end!!
Please leave comments, we really enjoy them!!

And We're Bac k

Hello, and now just a few words from our sponsers. . . .


So it is now doing the equivalent of pouring execpt it is not rain it's snow!!!
As I am kinda sick Amber wouldn't let me stay outside and has insisted on staying warm and dry. But little does she know that I am plotting my escape later on.

We have been unable to post or read emails or go on facebook or do anything that involves a computer due to ours gettting broken, but thanks to the wonderful Mike we are back and our computer is all better!

I have now got photos to show you of our apartment (well our bedroom anyway)
We did try to make a video of the apartment but we yammered on for too long and after 40 minutes it still hadn't finished uploading to our blog so we had to let that idea go.

Latest exploits

So the Shambles have been travelling again! We spent the Christmas holidays in Bradford and we went to York (the old one not the new one).
York is a small town that was originally settled by the Vikings hundreds of years ago. There is a HUGE cathedral there called York minster which is very Gothic looking and cute little cobbled streets and lots of bendy houses. (for those of you not in the know a bendy house is a building that looks like it is defying architecture and gravity by staying up). Also in York is . . . . The Shambles! (I'm serious) there is a street called The Shambles and another one called Little Shambles.
But the best thing about York (well at least I think so) is that the town is surrounded by a city wall which you can walk on. We got a great view of the city from up there. From now on I have decided that the city I will one day own will also have a wall built around it.
Anyway here are some of the sights from York.


As you can see from the photos this town is a mixture of new and old architecture. buildings have stayed the same and the city has grown around them with modern roads and street lights etc. Also I should mention that it was VERY cold the day we came here which is why we are so rugged up in the top two photos.
As it was so cold on this day we went to a tiny little chocolatiers which made real hot chocolate drinks which was a good way to warm up both our insides as well as our hands.

In other news, we have finally moved into our new flat. So far so good. Mel and Mike have been fantastic, they helped us to move all of our stuff and they took us to Ikea so we could buy some stuff for the new place. We now have things like sheets a duvet. Also as our new room only had a bed and wardrobe in it we were able to get a desk and some bedside tables.
Amber has had to work at the theatre today and I have spent most of the day unpacking and arranging our new room, I am very tired. Amber is back to her other job tomorrow.

Anyway I hope everybody had a good Christmas and a happy new years on the beach/having a BBQ/getting sun/enjoying the outdoors. We have been having extra cold weather for the last few days and the forecast is saying there might even be some snow tomorrow. Unlike Bradford, We were hoping for a white Christmas and as it is colder up there than down here there was a chance that we might have had one but it did not snow until 2 days AFTER we left. So far the snow seems to be eluding us.

Christmas Wishes

Just wanted to send Christmas Wishes to you all. . .
But first, some pics of the ice on the top of our landlord's car, A) cause it's pretty and B) to show just how cold it is over here!!
Right, here's for the Christmas-y Wishes, hope it works. . .

Because My Mum Told Me Too....

Hello all.
My mum requested that I post some photos from our neighbourhood and so here we are. Numbers 2,3,4,&5 are of Horsham centre.

Still no proper snow. Still waiting for my visa. Still not smoking.

Don't think I have any more news.
Merry Bloody Christmas

Firsts and lasts

Ok, so some of you may already know this, but last weekend Shelley and I went to London and Shelley took me Ice-Skating for the first time ever!! Now, for those who know me you will not be too surprised to hear that Shelley made sure she had the first aid kit with her and she also made note of the Medic as we were heading onto the ice. (She also suggested I become friends with him). So she was VERY pleasantly surprised when I only fell over six times. . .in an hour. . .and didn't have to go to hospital afterwards!
So anyway, here are some pictures:

These photos show the beautiful venue. . .The Tower of London (there weren't any hangings on the day we went . . . ) It was lovely and COLD!! Freezing cold, there was snow in London that night and apparently in Horsham too although it had all melted by the time we woke up. And I had to walk around London with wet jeans all day!! Stupid wet ice.

This is the five minutes in between falling over that I actually managed to skate for. . .in fact the skating wasn't the problem; the stopping was.

And unfortunately the problem with stopping (aside from the falling over) was that it often happened in front of people:

The nice man in the red jacket was an ice marshall whose job was to make sure everyone was ok and behaving on the ice. He thought it was cruel of Shelley to not let him help me up until after she'd taken the photo of me.
Shelley on the other hand had no problems with the skating . . .

But then, she has been ice skating before so it's understandable.
The bruises I received are now healing and I WANNA DO IT AGAIN!!!!! It was just so much fun and I'm sure with more practice there will be less of the falling over. . .I hope.

Anyway, after the ice-skating we headed over to Covent Garden for lunch, which only took twice as long as expected because one of The Major tube lines was closed for engineering work (Shelley thinks there was a broken cup holder somewhere).
We found this lovely little Crepe-erie (or however that's spelt) called La Creme de la Crepe. . .Anyone who may be heading to Covent Garden in the near future (which I'm sure is all of you!) should go eat there, they do the BEST savoury crepes, especially the "Piggy that Went to Market", yummy in my tummy . . . and one of these days we'll be able to try the sweet ones as well. . .See how pretty it looks:


We also went to the NZ shop, which is still out of L&P, much to Shelley's disgust. . .she was extremely looking forward to having some L&P and it's the second time we've been all the way into London and they haven't had any. They also didn't have any twisties or burger rings either, in fact they didn't have any chippies at all!!

Just before we left Covent Garden, we saw these guys:
They were the funniest street performers I've ever seen!! They really knew how to work the crowd and keep us all entertained. It was great!!
But anyway, onto the other big news of this blog. . .Shelley smoked her last cigarette last night. . .I have previously given her an ultimatim that she has to be smoke free before we try for babies and as cigarettes are so expensive over here we decided that the carton bought at duty free would be her last. Doing it while over here also means that she is around less people who smoke (you know who you are!!) so it might be easier for her to quit. . .

This is her lighting up for the last time, as you can see she had some trouble lighting it due to the wind and the cold (have we mentioned just how cold it is over here at the moment?)

This is her savouring her last cigarette (see how happy she looks? I might end up missing that look in the very near future)

And this is the end of an era. . .after 18 years of smoking, Shelley is attempting to stop. . .wish us both luck. . .if you don't hear from us for a little while, Shelley may have gone on a murderous rampage. . .

Hyde Park, Hallowe'en and more about Amber's job

So, Amber had work on Saturday and Sunday at the Capitol before starting at Muntham on Monday, so Shelley and her (I like talking about us in the third person to confuse you all!!) decided to go to London on Thursday for a sort of "last minute explore". Amber had been telling Shelley all about the squirrels in Hyde Park and how friendly they are so they decided that it was a perfect opportunity to go visit them. . .Before we found any squirrels though, we did find a sign which we're sure we've told you about before. . .


Isn't it great?? The dead body just makes it I think!!
Anyway, we then met this squirrel, who was a little shy, but at least posed for a cute picture (I, Amber, personally think he was imitating a Meer Kat. . .)

He seemed very curious about the two of us, but just was a little too shy to actually come up to us. However, we soon hunted out a big group of VERY friendly squirrels, the cutest of which was this little guy - we think he's saying "ME?!?!?" and that is Shelley's knee that you can see him leaning on!!! She was also the one taking the photo.
So any of you Animal lovers who think squirrels are absolutely adorable, I strongly suggest that you visit Hyde Park!! And if you take nuts, seeds and other Squirrel-friendly foods they will love you even more. . .
We also visited Covent Garden (which Shelley loved although she was too interested in the Shopping and it was too cold for her to let me stay to watch some of the street performers) and we found the NZ Shop!! Yay for Pixie Caramel's, Perky Nana's, Summer Rolls and K-Bars!!! Unfortunately they had sold out of L&P, much to Shelley's disgust. She had been looking forward to her L&P all day!! After all of that we went to Camden Market and explored around there. We found the rudest man, he was selling NZ Greenstone carvings and was EXTREMELY arrogant and RUDE!!
But anyway, at Camden Market's we found the Original Doc Marten Store and Amber (yes, talking about myself in the third person again), who needed some boots anyway as it's coming into Winter and she's working, may have gotten some Made in England, 20-up boots. . .yay for credit cards. . .
And then we move on to Friday, we know Hallowe'en is not a big deal over in NZ, but over here it really is!! So we got dressed up a little. . .



In the photo of me you can see my new boots poking out the bottom :)
Some of Mel's work mates were doing a "Space Hopper Pub Crawl" for charity (no seriously, they had a website where you could sponser them and they were carrying buckets around with them as well!!) so we went along with them as their support (and laughed at them a lot!!). It was fun!!

Anyway, some of you have been asking on Facebook about my new job so I thought I would explain a little more. . .Due to the nature of the school (see below, or check out the website given in the other post), all staff have to be trained in proper restraint techniques and unfortunately I have not been trained just yet. . .as a Learning Support Assistant I am basically helping out when and where I'm told. I am meant to be mostly in English but due to the fact that the English teacher is pregnant and therefore can not currently restrain the boys and I'm not trained yet; they're not putting me with her until I'm trained. So far I have been in, Art, IT, Maths, Drama and, the dreaded, PE. I'm dealing with boys who are aged from 11/12 through to 15/16. And they have all been permanently exlcuded from a Mainstream school at some point. There are about 8 boys who are on the Autistic spectrum, there are ADHD kids and kids who just generally have emotional and social problems. Most of them are actually really lovely and have just had a bad time when it comes to parents/situations, etc.
Anyway, I'm off to go pout about David Tennant leaving Doctor Who and it's my bed time too.
Leave more comments people!!!! :)